Recently spent a day at the range with a buddy shooting our 1861 Enfield Musketoons and each of us had extremely different results with our guns.
A little background, decades ago I briefly owned a Euroarms 1861 Musketoon, and while a fairly well made gun, it could not accurately shoot Minies of any style, though it handled patched roundballs fairly well. Since that time, I had the opportunity to shoot a number of Parker-Hale examples, and they seemed to shoot Minies with relative ease, and always thought I’d like to pick one up.
Recently purchased that P-H Musketoon from the forum classified (thank you @BigSkyRambler) and I had not yet shot it, and it was time to give it a test run.
I have a friend in PA that recently acquired a NOS Pedersoli Enfield Musketoon who was going to be traveling through NC and we decided to schedule a play date. It’s worth noting that he had been unable to get Minies of any type to shoot with acceptable accuracy, and even though it shot patched roundballs ‘ok’, he wanted to shoot Minies. He also wasn’t interested in shooting trashcan shaped bullets like a REAL, which he admitted he had not tried.
Enough rambling, I’ll cut to my notes on the ‘test’ and the results.
Bullet: Lyman's 575213PH cast from soft lead (5 BHN), sized to .575”, homemade lube.
Powder: Swiss 3F, 50 grains by volume for all shots.
Musket cap: RWS 1081.
Target: 2-3/4” bull at 25 yards, 5-1/2” bull at 50 yards. Used six-o’clock hold, all shots taken from seated position, gun unsupported. Note to self, getting too old to shoot muzzleloader from seated position if standing up to load. Bring short stool and cross-sticks next time.
P-H Musketoon results:
First will be to see how it loads and shoots. Goal was 25 shots without a bore intervention, and actually shot 35 times. Sights are an issue, but wanted to shoot as is first. Front sight is modified to a thin .03” wide blade, and is about .40” above the barrel. Too tall and too thin. The rear sight was also modified by a previous owner, having only a .02” square notch. Very difficult to use, but an easy fix.
At 25 yards with rear sight in #’1’ position (100 yards?) had three shots in a 1-1/2” group about 1” below POA. With rear sight in position #’3’ (300 yards?) only took one shot, but about 10-1/2” higher.
At 50 yards with rear sight in #’1’ position had a 3-3/4” group with six shots, about 4-1/2” below POA. With rear sight in position #’3’ took two shots that were about 17” higher.
With rear sight in #’3’ position hit a 24” high by 30” wide steel plate at 300 yards sighting at top of plate. No wind, but hit near left edge of the plate. Thinking gun may be shooting a bit to the left, particularly when rear sight is elevated. More testing required.
Pedersoli Enfield Musketoon results:
I didn’t measure the bore diameter, but owner stated that as cast .577” Minies would load, but there was some resistance. The .575” sized Minies I let him shoot dropped down the bore, the same as my P-H bore.
Pretty obvious the Lyman PH Minie sized to .575” was not the solution. Took five shots at 25 yards and all key-holed, with a pattern of over 17”.
At 50 yards, got no hits on a 24” x 32” target. A bore relining is in the near future according to the owner.
Note that rifling depth according to owner (using a lead slug) in the Pedersoli bore measured a little over .003”. Spec is .004” deep 1x48 rifling. The P-H rifling is supposed to be 1-48 with progressive depth. Per old notes the spec is .005” deep at the muzzle and .016” deep at the breech. Something to confirm.
A little background, decades ago I briefly owned a Euroarms 1861 Musketoon, and while a fairly well made gun, it could not accurately shoot Minies of any style, though it handled patched roundballs fairly well. Since that time, I had the opportunity to shoot a number of Parker-Hale examples, and they seemed to shoot Minies with relative ease, and always thought I’d like to pick one up.
Recently purchased that P-H Musketoon from the forum classified (thank you @BigSkyRambler) and I had not yet shot it, and it was time to give it a test run.
I have a friend in PA that recently acquired a NOS Pedersoli Enfield Musketoon who was going to be traveling through NC and we decided to schedule a play date. It’s worth noting that he had been unable to get Minies of any type to shoot with acceptable accuracy, and even though it shot patched roundballs ‘ok’, he wanted to shoot Minies. He also wasn’t interested in shooting trashcan shaped bullets like a REAL, which he admitted he had not tried.
Enough rambling, I’ll cut to my notes on the ‘test’ and the results.
Bullet: Lyman's 575213PH cast from soft lead (5 BHN), sized to .575”, homemade lube.
Powder: Swiss 3F, 50 grains by volume for all shots.
Musket cap: RWS 1081.
Target: 2-3/4” bull at 25 yards, 5-1/2” bull at 50 yards. Used six-o’clock hold, all shots taken from seated position, gun unsupported. Note to self, getting too old to shoot muzzleloader from seated position if standing up to load. Bring short stool and cross-sticks next time.
P-H Musketoon results:
First will be to see how it loads and shoots. Goal was 25 shots without a bore intervention, and actually shot 35 times. Sights are an issue, but wanted to shoot as is first. Front sight is modified to a thin .03” wide blade, and is about .40” above the barrel. Too tall and too thin. The rear sight was also modified by a previous owner, having only a .02” square notch. Very difficult to use, but an easy fix.
At 25 yards with rear sight in #’1’ position (100 yards?) had three shots in a 1-1/2” group about 1” below POA. With rear sight in position #’3’ (300 yards?) only took one shot, but about 10-1/2” higher.
At 50 yards with rear sight in #’1’ position had a 3-3/4” group with six shots, about 4-1/2” below POA. With rear sight in position #’3’ took two shots that were about 17” higher.
With rear sight in #’3’ position hit a 24” high by 30” wide steel plate at 300 yards sighting at top of plate. No wind, but hit near left edge of the plate. Thinking gun may be shooting a bit to the left, particularly when rear sight is elevated. More testing required.
Pedersoli Enfield Musketoon results:
I didn’t measure the bore diameter, but owner stated that as cast .577” Minies would load, but there was some resistance. The .575” sized Minies I let him shoot dropped down the bore, the same as my P-H bore.
Pretty obvious the Lyman PH Minie sized to .575” was not the solution. Took five shots at 25 yards and all key-holed, with a pattern of over 17”.
At 50 yards, got no hits on a 24” x 32” target. A bore relining is in the near future according to the owner.
Note that rifling depth according to owner (using a lead slug) in the Pedersoli bore measured a little over .003”. Spec is .004” deep 1x48 rifling. The P-H rifling is supposed to be 1-48 with progressive depth. Per old notes the spec is .005” deep at the muzzle and .016” deep at the breech. Something to confirm.
